Empowering Community Through Creative Expression RC HUMS 334--001 & SW 513-001
Fall 2015 Wednesdays 3-6pm Room B856 Residential College, East Quad RM. B856
Instructors
Deb Gordon Gurfinkel (RCHUMS 334-001) Rich Tolman (SW 513-001) [email protected] [email protected] Work: (734) 649-3118 Work: (734) 764-5333 Office Hours: Wednesdays Office: SSWB 3703 9am – 2pm Please make appointments for office hours
COURSE DESCRIPTION
How can the arts affect change in communities? This course challenges the understanding of what it means to be empowered and how to be an agent of empowerment. The class fosters students’ ability to apply the arts as a tool for change in issues of social justice, including as an educational tool in response to the impact of racism and classism on equal access to educational resources for children and youth in the United States. Students will develop the capacity to formulate creative arts interventions through exposure to engaged-learning practices class and at their weekly community-based internship at one of the exemplary arts and social justice organizations that partner with this class in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Detroit. This course offers students a collaborative learning experience with Residential College and School of Social Work faculty, community artists and community members from local agencies serving families and youth. Students explore how this genre affects personal, community, and societal transformation through self-reflection, creative response, and the written and recorded work of arts innovators.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
• Apply and articulate values, ethical standards and principles unique to arts-based interventions involving diverse populations and settings.
• Increase in understanding about the ways that historically racist and class biases have systemically affected the educational and career paths of African-Americans, Latinos, those living in communities with low Social Economic Status and those with intellectual and physical disabilities.
• Identify ways to match arts-based interventions methods effectively and ethically with community members, across diverse populations and cultural backgrounds.
• Understand how language and dialect affect personal empowerment.
• Describe ways that arts-based interventions can contribute to social change and social justice at the individual, organizational and community level.
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• Demonstrate ability to form alliances and collaborations and communicate empathically.
• Understand the role of the arts in the process of community, social and individual change and acquire skills in using the arts effectively for these purposes.
• Identify a range of arts-based intervention methods that can be applied to individual and community change efforts.
• Apply in some depth at least one method of arts-based intervention in an applied community setting.
• Develop understanding of group skills needed for community collaboration and intercultural interaction.
• Apply strategic planning design and analysis of systems (e.g. logic models) to arts-based intervention at the community level.
• Conduct grant writing and proposal writing to support arts-based interventions.
• Understand the role of volunteers in carrying out the work and fulfilling the missions of arts-based interventions and how they relate to staff, artists and community members involved in the intervention.
• Utilize a wide perspective of arts-based approaches that engage, strengthen and build wellbeing at the individual, organizational and community level.
Text and Readings: All texts are available on C Tools in Resources except for the book The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom Edited by Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy 2002 The New Press. Students will need to obtain this book and have read it by October 21st. All of the required videos links are easily accessible and have subtitles.
Weeks 1 and 2 9/9 & 9/16 Themes: Class orientation, Team Building, Internship Information and Selection
Confirm Internship Selections by Week 2.
Required Reading Levine, Stephen K. “Art Opens to the World: Expressive Arts and Social Action” Art in Action: Expressive Arts Therapy and Social Change (2011): p. 21-31
Assignment Due for Week 2 Bring in a response to the question, “What is the Purpose of Art?”
Week 3 – NO CLASS Due to Instructors Religious Observance 9/23-Yom Kippur
2 Assignment Bryan Stevenson’s TED Talk on Identity and Injustice http://www.ted.com/talks/bryan_stevenson_we_need_to_talk_about_an_injustice
Week 4 9/30 Themes: Social Identity, Defining Social Justice, Entering and Exiting Community
• Identify own social, racial and cultural identities and group memberships and understand how these relate to arts-based work with community members, collaborators and others. • Envision what social justice could look like in specific contexts, • Develop understanding of group skills needed for increasing intercultural interaction and cross-cultural collaboration at the community level. • Demonstrate intersectional humility in communication and interactions with others, • Incorporate insights from those with insider and outsider statuses into social justice planning and actions.
Required Reading
Gasker, J. A., & Fischer, A. C. (2014). Toward a Context-Specific Definition of Social Justice for Social Work: In Search of Overlapping Consensus. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 11(1).
Spencer, Michael. “A Social Worker’s Reflections on Power, Privilege, and Oppression.” Social Work 53.2 (2008): 99-101.
Langhout, Regina Day. “Where am I? Locating Myself and its Implication for Collaborative Research.” American Journal of Community Psychology 37 (2006): 267-274.
Assignment Due 1st Reflection
Week 5 10/7 Theme: The Power of Arts for Change; the arts as a tool for individual, community and organizational empowerment.
Students are introduced to the work of community activists, teachers and artists Dorothy Heathcote and Hector Aristizabel. Students will: • Learn about pedagogies that promote the healing of individuals and communities through arts interventions, specifically Aristizabel’s Blessing Next to the Wound. • Students are introduced to drama in education specialist Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert pedagogy and practice engaged-learning methodologies in order to add new skills to their arts intervention toolbox.
Required Reading Lefer, Diane, “The Blessing Is Next To The Wound” The Sun 358 (2005): 5-13 & Lefer, Diane
3 Aristizabel, Hector. The Blessing Next to the Wound A Story of Art, Activism and Transformation (2010): 221-236. Please note that theses two texts are both headed “Blessing Next to the Wound” on the Reading list in Resources.
Heathcote, Dorothy and Bolton, Gavin. Drama for Learning: Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert Approach to Education. Forward by Cecily O’Neill (1995): vii-24.
Gullett, David E. “Enhancing Student Learning Through Arts Integration: Implications for the Profession” The High School Journal April/May 2008 University of North Carolina Press.
Recommended Reading Kappula, Katri. “Dorothy Heathcote’s Living Through Drama in General and Religious Education.” Fellowship Report. The Farmington Institute 1999. )
Assignment Due 2nd Reflection
Week 6 10/14 Theme: Using the arts to address personal and societal conditions. Visiting artists Mark Strandquist, Val Mann, Natalia Harris and Lloyd Shelton lead an interactive class that provides examples of how their art-discipline empowers themselves and the groups with which they work, and share their personal journeys.
Required www.peoplespaperco-op.com 12mins.
How Bad Is the School-to-Prison Pipeline? Fact sheet and community discussion. http://www.ted.com/talks/jamila_lyiscott_3_ways_to_speak_english?language=en 5 mins.
Sandahl, Carrie Disability Art and Artistic Expression
Lalvani, Priya and Broderick, Alicia A. “Institutionalized Ableism and the Misguided ‘Disability Awareness Day’: Transformative Pedagogies for Teacher Education”
Assignment Due 3rd Reflection Site Reports
Week 7 10/21 Theme: Language and Power, the Power of Language Referring to Lisa Delpit’s book, The Skin That We Speak, students will:
1. Identify the ways in which individuals experience language as a personal reflection of gender, race, class and/or sub-culture through the sharing of personal experiences. 2. Deepen understanding of how language and communication (code-switching) impact community practice and arts intervention methodologies.
4 3. Identify how the power of language/language of power is significant to the goals of personal and community empowerment.
Required Reading The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom by Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy
Assignment Due 4th Reflection Site Reports
Week 8 10/28 Theme: Education, An Issue of Social Justice Visiting education specialist Dr. Simona Goldin (School of Education) provides an historical backdrop to the current racist and classist inequalities in education policy and teaching practices in American schools. She poses the questions, ‘why is education the social justice issue of our time?’ and ‘why is it that so many children have permission to fail?’ Race and class disparities in K-12 classrooms are examined and linked to the work at the community sites.
Required 150 Different Ways of Knowing: Representations of Knowledge in Teaching S Wilson, L. Schulman and A. Reichert
Dear Zora: A Letter to Zora Neale Hurston 50 Years After Brown. The Graduate Center, CUNY
Critically Engaged Learning; Connecting to Young Lives. J. Smyth, L. Angus, B. Down and P. McInerney ps. 117-147
‘The Problem We All Live With” from “This American Life” Archives #562 7/31/2015 interview with Nicole Hannah-Jones from the New York Times. 58 mins. 12 mins.
Recommended ‘The Character Test” Paul Tough’s New York Times article and/or listen to “This American Life” Archives #474 “Back to School” 9/14/2012, interview with Paul Tough, 57 mins.
Assignment Due 5th Reflection
Week 9 11/4 Theme: Oral History to Performance Students will:
• Discuss oral history techniques and use said techniques to represent their internship site to the class.
Required Reading Mendeloff, Kate. “Taking Action: Teaching Participatory Community-Based Theater.” Community Arts Network. 2001. Art in the Public Interest. 5 Jan 2009. www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2001/09/taking_action_1_4.php
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Westlake, E.J. “The Children of Tomorrow: Seattle Public Theater’s Work with Homeless Youth.”
Assign and review rubric for Kickstarter Project Proposals (KPP)
Assignment Due 6th Reflection Site Reports
Week 10 11/11 Theme: Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Students will:
• Workshop Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed and learn a few of the methodologies that could be used at some of the sites.
Required Reading Paterson, Doug. A Brief Introduction to Augusto Boal. Community Arts Network. 1999. Community Arts Network, Art in the Public Interest. 5 Jan 2009. http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/1999/12/a_brief_introdu.php
Paterson, Doug and Mark Weinberg. We are All Theater. Community Arts Network. 2002. Community Arts Network, Art in the Public Interest. 5 Jan 2009. http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2002/09/we_all_are_thea.php
Kanter, J. (2007). Disciplined bodies at play: improvisation in a federal prison. Cultural Studies-- Critical Methodologies, 7(4), 378-396.
Yoshihama, M., & Tolman, R. M. (2015). Using interactive theater to create socioculturally relevant community-based intimate partner violence prevention. American journal of community psychology, 55(1-2), 136-147.
Assignments Due 7th Reflection In class: internship experiences are represented through the expressive arts
Week 11 11/18 Theme: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Arts Methodologies in Empowering the Individual, an Organization and a Community. An interactive and discursive class on the rationales and methods for assessing arts interventions in communities. A review of how to research and develop proposals when seeking funding for projects in preparation for the Project Proposal Presentations.
Students will: • Apply strategic planning design and analysis of systems (e.g. logic models) to arts- based intervention at the community level.
6 • Learn of some important and controversial case studies on how arts intervention programs affected and altered a community’s culture. • Determine appropriate and ethical data collection and analytic methods for evaluation.
Required Reading Bagamoyo College of Arts et al. “Participatory action research on HIV/AIDS through a popular theater approach in Tanzania.” Evaluation and Program Planning. 25 2002): 333-339.
Stern, Mark J., and Susan C. Seifert. Civic engagement and the arts: issues of conceptualization and measurement. University of Pennsylvania, School of Social Policy & Practice, 2009.
Recommended Resources Health and Behaviour: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Journal of Health Psychology. 13.2 (2008): 251-264.
Innovation Network. Evaluation Plan Workbook. Washington, D.C.: Innovation Network Inc.
Innovation Network. Logic Model Workbook. Washington, D.C.: Innovation Network Inc.
Kellogg Foundation. Logic Model Development Guide. Battle Creek, MI: Kellogg Foundation, 2004.
Check in on how the Kickstarter Project Proposals are going
Assignment Due 8th Reflection
Week 12 - NO CLASS Thanksgiving Break
Week 13 12/2 Theme: Kickstarter Project Proposals viewed by a panel of community stakeholders
Week 14 12/9 Themes: Last Class, Closure and Evaluating Experience
Assignment Due Kickstarter Presentations with annotated notes
ASSIGNMENTS & RUBRICS
Weekly Reflection Papers: Students will submit a 500 word reflection (equals 2 double-spaced pages). The reflections provide an opportunity to:
1. Reflect upon and process experiences as they happen. 2. Communicate directly with the supervising teacher. 3. Have a private forum to air personal triggers caused by the work. 4. When possible, integrate the readings and the course work with the internships.
7 5. Show evidence that the weekly assigned texts have been read in preparation for the next class. 6. Compile a record of the semester to refer back to for the final reflective essay.
Students should reflect on the themes, readings or discussions including how they relate to site work in a section labeled: Classroom and reading reflection. Also include any other relevant reflection on site work that may not be related to readings that week in a section labeled: Additional site reflection.
Students are required to submit a total of 8 reflections over the course of the semester starting the fourth week of the class, with an additional final self-evaluative reflection due at the end of the semester. The deadline for submission is 3pm of each Wednesday class. The reflections should be posted in the Assignment section of C Tools, not in the drop box. If you post something for us to view in the drop box, please let us know as we don’t routinely check that section of c-tools.
Final Self-Evaluation Essay: This essay should be 1000 words (four pages double-spaced pages) and will provide an opportunity to evaluate experiences in this course focusing on individual contributions and insights. This paper is due on December 16th by 3pm. Questions to consider are:
1. How responsible was I as a classroom citizen and as a contributor at my site? 2. What have I learned about myself and what were the surprising and take-away moments? 3. Which of the course learning goals (see page 2) informed me on issues about which previously, I knew little or nothing? 4. What have I learned about the subject and the practice of the arts as an empowering tool? 5. What have I learned about the community with which I was engaged? Do I have any continuing plans that may include social justice and/or the arts?
Site Reports Over the course of weeks 5, 6 & 7, each internship group will give a 5-minute BRIEF description of their site that should include:
• The mission of the host organization. • The demographic of the participants. • Role of intern and focus of the internship. • Any challenges as an intern. • The apparent strengths and needs of the organization.
These short presentations will act as the foundation for Oral History to Performance in a later class.
Kickstarter Project Proposals will be presented on Wednesday, December 2nd. The purpose of this assignment is for students to evaluate the strengths and needs of their site and to:
1. Assess and diagnose community needs and assets in ways which gather information, increase participation and strengthen social diversity, 2. Research and present to visiting specialist, a creative arts or fundraising idea that may be used next semester at their site.
8 3. Create a Kickstarter pitch video that will engage, inform and motivate a panel of potential funders. The how-to of how this device can be utilized to fund innovative ideas will be discussed in class when the assignment is set.
What should this class do at your site next semester? We are constantly in search of new ideas to make this programming more effective—and we’re asking for your help.
Your assignment: create a Kickstarter pitch video proposal for a project that will involve RCHUMS 334 students and community members at your internship site. This project should use the creative arts to build upon the strengths and address the needs of the community your site serves OR a business model to help fund and sustain the programming. The point of this assignment is for you to suggest to us, based on your experiences, what project would be a good fit for both UM students and community participants to maximize the learning experience of each.
Check out examples of effective and successful Kickstarter pitch videos at: http://kickstarterguide.com/2012/06/13/examples-of-great-pitch-videos/
Let’s suppose that next semester you have been appointed to be the leader at your site. Propose a project that will take place over an entire semester or a unit. Required information and questions to consider for the Kickstarter pitch proposal (KPP):
• Introduce yourselves and explain the site you are representing, the demographic of the participants at the site and the focus of your KPP. • Why this project for this group? • What will the theme be? • What is the expected outcome of this proposal? • What steps will be taken to get to that outcome? Please provide a timeline. • Provide a logic model for your project. • How does this project build upon the strengths and address the needs of the community? Please back up these claims with evidence. • Has this idea been tried before and if so, what happened, what were the impediments to its success and how would you address those challenges? • What materials will you use to address the theme at your site? • What will U-M students do? What will they gain from this experience? • What will the community members do? What will they gain from this experience? • How much money will this project cost? Some personnel costs are covered by the agency but you should check before assuming that their time will be covered. All invited specialists like artists should be accounted for in your budget so check on how much they charge. • Transportation issues and costs.
On December 2rd, each student, either individually or, more likely, as part of their internship team, will show their Kickstarter pitch video to a panel that includes at least two of our community partners. The oral feedback given by the panel to the video pitches should be recorded in note form and then submitted with the Kickstarter proposal by December 9th.
Rubric for Kickstarter Proposal Project In order to receive a grade of 20 the following needs to be included in the proposal presentation:
9 For teams that work together on one project Evidence that all members of the team shared with equitable responsibility the research and assembling of the information necessary for their KPP.
Equity in the development and execution of the video pitch presentation.
For everyone Provide a clear goal or goals and the rationale for the project proposal with evidence of research and communication with site representatives as to the viability of the proposal. Additionally, describe how guidance had been sought on how to make the proposal truly collaborative whilst making sure that the needs of the site were being met.
A brief video pitch presentation that clearly and creatively reflects the project components.
Realistic budgets and detailed plans for raising funds if applicable. Examples of foundations and funding sources that could be a good match for the proposal.
Evidence of communication with city or other supervisory bodies if the project requires their permission for execution and/or installation.
A realistic timeline.
A Logic Model with Outcomes and any Measurable Actions
Once the presentation has been given, the teams take notes whilst listening to the feedback and questions from the panel. This annotated feedback reflects that the presenters understand the response they receive from the panel of experts.
Final submission of the KPP and the annotated notes is due on December 9th, the final day of class.
SITE WORK
This is singularly the most important element of this course where students will:
1. Learn to identify a range of arts-based intervention methods that can be applied to individual and community change efforts.
2. Formulate plans and strategies that involve individuals and diverse racial, ethnic, social groups in efforts to set goals, generate programs, make organizational decisions, respect differences in communication and conflict styles and that involve collective action in order to implement.
3. Apply at least one method of arts-based intervention in an applied community setting.
4. Understand the role of volunteers included in and fulfilling the mission of arts-based interventions and how they relate to staff, artists and community members involved in the collaborative project.
5. Present at least one oral report in class that highlights micro and macro observations and experiences from the site.
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Students must be dependable (being on time, being prepared, being as flexible as possible) as well as willing to fully engage and participate. This means students must make an effort to roll up their sleeves and get involved. Talk to people, be open to learning from the site leader and the community. The sites are very different and therefore the internship experience may vary greatly between sites. Not all of the internships will have hands-on opportunities. Be prepared to learn more than teach and to be ready to provide what the partnering agency needs even if that differs from expectations. Respect feedback and take it in the spirit in which it is given. Your input is also very important at the sites so be open to both receiving and giving feedback in mutually respectful exchanges with the site leaders.
GRADE BREAKDOWN
Site-Work: 30% Weekly Reflection Assignments: 20% Participation in Class & Self-Evaluation Essay: 20% Oral History to Performance: 10% Kickstarter Proposal Project: 20%
CLASS RUBRIC AND RESOURCES
What is Expected of the Student When Participating in This Class This class is team-taught by teachers with varying teaching styles. What they share is a commitment to engaged and interactive learning so students will be expected to participate in activities and exercises that may be quite physical, including role-play and games. Active participation in class is expected. Active participation can be demonstrated in several ways, some examples are: read the texts that have been assigned, participate in discussion, volunteer for in-class exercises, bring experiences or problems from real life groups to class discussion, thoughtfully process classroom experiences, take risks in sustaining dialogue on difficult issues such as racial and ethnic identity, issues of class, and physical disability. Accommodations can be made if a student has any barriers to the interactive aspects of this class so make sure to let us know ahead of time when possible.
Attendance Policy We have a great responsibility to our community partners and our class only meets once a week therefore an unexcused absence from class or the internship site will result in a student’s final grade dropping by half a mark. More than three absences could affect your ability to complete the course successfully. Frequent tardiness to class and internships will also affect a student’s participation or site-work grade and evaluation.
COMMUNITY PARTNERS & INTERNSHIPS FOR FALL 2015
The following are the internships options available for this semester. The preference is to have no fewer than two interns at each site however, in the case of independent internships that number can be as low as one. The commitment is anything from two to four hours a week depending on the site. You can select as many as you feel you can commit to and carpooling is available for most of the sites as well as loaner cars that can be arranged through the Center for Engaged and Academic Learning.
ARTS AND GENDER ACTIVISM. Students can choose to do several projects under this umbrella.
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Recent data collected from UM students showed that 20% of women on campus report some form of sexual assault each year. We are inviting arts-based student projects that can help change this appalling statistic.
One project that may continue is Guys&Dolls. Guys& Dolls creates images and experiences where boys and men interact with dolls. Guys&Dolls uses dolls as symbols for a taboo of masculinity that still holds power – boys aren’t supposed to play with dolls. By transgressing the rigid gender norms that proscribes boys playing with dolls, we create a space for boys and men to develop into nurturing and caring partners and parents. Our work uses multiple media, including photography, collage and fabric construction, and we are open to exploring other art forms depending on the skills and preferences of the team members. Guys &Dolls can continue the work that groups of students from previous classes began. Past work has included sock doll- making workshops for boys and an ongoing photographic project that takes pictures of men holding a baby doll and finds ways to get them seen by the public (see Guys&Dolls on Facebook).
Arts and Gender Activism Internship role: Work on these gender and arts projects will be mainly group directed. We will have some initial meetings among students that are interested and then projects will work mostly independently through the semester. Hours will be somewhat flexible and determined by the group. Important note: This option is probably best for those students who are self-directed and have some community experience already, as the projects may not have the same hands-on, ongoing contact with community members as many of the other internship options. It can be frustrating, as well as exhilarating, to do a group project with less built-in structure.
Faculty supervisor: Rich 734-846-9683
SALT & CEDAR is an exciting and relatively new internship site located at the Eastern Market in Detroit. Co-owners, Megan O’Connell and Leon Johnson, use the space to connect the graphic arts, music, community gatherings and food. Their “Book and Bread” events, hosted every few weeks, are workshops teaching bookbinding, printing, and letterpress techniques, but they also include dinners with ingredients sourced fresh from the market. ‘It’s the deep desire people have to return to fresh, true ingredients and beautiful materials,’ O’Connell explains.” (Detroit Unspun June 5, 2013) They use their interest in the art of food and the graphic arts as a pathway to social justice through interactions with local youth that may have mental health challenges. Interns interested in this site will go with Deb to meet with Megan, Leon and their son Leander in order to assess what would work for both parties over the fall semester.
Salt and Cedar Internship role: “In the coming months, the printshop will be in full motion. We are in the process of adding another Vandercook press and setting up a silkscreen workshop. Salt & Cedar will be spearheading some fresh print/design projects, including a collaboration with South African artist Stephen Dobbs (who will also be giving a talk for the Penny Stamps School of Art & Design series), and designing prints for a multi-state tour with chef and writer Anthony Bourdain.
The pressroom would greatly benefit from cataloguing and proofing fonts of type and assistance with the forthcoming commissions/editions. And, a few administrative tasks including, but not limited to, mailing list maintenance, layout of monthly newsletters, growth of our on-line marketplace, and engagement with social media would be helpful. We are also involved in local initiatives around books, publishing, and printing this fall--The Detroit Art Book Fair and Detroit
12 Design Festival--which will involve whomever would enjoy helping. Best days for participation are Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.” Megan O’Connell
Where: 2448 Riopelle Street, Detroit 48207. Tel: 207-671-3462 When: To be determined by S&C and interns. Deb will go with interns to meet Megan at S&C to establish details. Transportation: Your own or car pool Faculty supervisor: Deb 734-649-3118
CORNER HEALTH CENTER’S THEATRE IN EDUCATION TROUPE “The Corner’s nationally recognized Theatre Troupe program (SAMHSA’s* National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices) combines peer education and outreach with theatre. Their performances focus on reducing risks and practicing healthier and safer behaviors and combine interactive theatre performances with follow-up workshops. In this, Theatre Troupe provides an engaging and effective educational approach for teens that have little or no exposure to the arts or health education. This motivates them to explore theatre while learning about health in a creative, compelling, and non-threatening way. The Corner demonstrates the value of using theatre as an educational tool and the significant impact the arts can have on knowledge, attitudes, and the building of important life skills.” * Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Where: 47, N. Huron Street, Ypsilanti 48107 When: Tuesdays 2:30-6:30pm starting Tuesday, September 23rd Transportation: Car pool or bus Faculty supervisor: Deb Corner Theatre Troupe Contacts: Craig VanKempen, Health Educator/Clinical Social Worker: 734.714.2241 Joey Albright, Theatre Director: 734.714.2231 Check out the Corner website at: http://www.cornerhealth.org/?module=Page&sID=theatre-troupe
Corner Internship role: A Corner Theatre Troupe intern should be prepared to work directly with Troupe members in their weekly meetings as well as at performances in the community. They will assist Craig and Joey in facilitating Troupe meetings, organizing pre and post surveys, researching information on teen health topics, and possibly assisting with workshop presentations.
This person should be energetic and have an ability to engage young people both in and out of Troupe meetings. Most of all, they should have the type of personality that honestly enjoys spending time with high-school-aged students.
TELLING IT is designed for under-served children and youth grades K-12 with a mission to serve children and youth who may be coping with the trauma of homelessness, exposure to gang activity, or any of the other compounding factors that can occur in under-served communities. The program employs innovative approaches to boost scholastic confidence by using the healing aspects of the arts in concert with evidenced-based educational and social work practices. In collaboration with community partners and trained support teams, TI establishes safe and creative environments for children and teens in order to: expand emotional literacy, practice soft skills that are essential for effective social interaction, empower self-agency, reframe self-image,
13 activate change when change is desired, build cognitive skills, address obstacles, stimulate writing and literacy skills.
There are four tenets that are fundamental to the program and that collectively form the springboard for all the thinking and planning that goes into each TI session. These tenets are as follows:
1) Everyone has an existing voice and TI offers multiple platforms from which a voice can be expressed and be heard. We do not give a voice to the voice-less but rather, introduce a variety of modes of self-expression in order to better serve each and every voice. 2) There is no censorship on content or closing down of pathways to self-expression. 3) The TI space is safe and judgment free. 4) Every TI site is a true collaboration between community stakeholders, the participants, the support team and the TI staff.
Telling It works in partnership with this class and with: SOS Community Services, an agency that provides shelter and support to homeless families. Avalon Housing, an agency that provides low-income housing and support services to single adults in recovery and to families that have experienced homelessness. Parkside Community Center Ypsilanti School District Washtenaw County’s Sheriff’s Office Check out Telling It’s web site at www.lsa.umich.edu/tellingit
Telling It internship role: Students that intern at a Telling It site will participate along side the site leader, the agency social workers and support team in the implementation of the program. Each site meets 30 minutes before the participants arrive to pre-brief and for 45-60 minutes after the participants leave to debrief with the whole support team. Towards the middle of the semester, interns will have leadership opportunities culminating in their developing and implementing two sessions with guidance and supervision from their site leader and Deb.
Telling It Avalon Where: Pauline Blvd. Ann Arbor When: Mondays 3-6pm starting with training on September 21st. Please bring a photocopy of your ID, either a driver’s license or passport. What: Weekly sessions with children 1st through 4th grade. Transportation: Carpool or public bus. Site leader and faculty supervisor: Deb 734-649-3118
Telling It Parkridge/Kids Where: Parkridge Community Center, 591, Armstrong Drive, Ypsilanti 48197 When: Mondays 3:30-6pm starting with training on September 21st8 Please bring a photocopy of your ID, either a driver’s license or passport. Transportation: Public bus or carpool What: Weekly sessions with 7-10 year olds living on the south side of Ypsilanti. Site leader: Renee Gross 303-386-5446 Faculty supervisor: Deb
Telling It Parkridge/Teens Where: Parkridge Community Center, 591, Armstrong Drive, Ypsilanti 48197
14 When: Mondays 5:30-8pm starting with training on September 28th. Please bring a photocopy of your ID, either a driver’s license or passport. Transportation: Public bus or carpool What: Weekly sessions with 14-18 year olds living on the south side of Ypsilanti. Site leader: Marv Gundy 732-912-9085 Faculty supervisor: Deb
Telling It SOS/Remix Where: Riverside Arts Center, 76 N. Huron, Ypsilanti 48197 When: Tuesdays 3:30-7pm starting with the training on September 22nd What: Weekly sessions with 10-14 year old children receiving services from SOS Community Services. Transportation: Carpool or local bus service Mandatory Training: Tuesday, September 22nd at 3-5:30pm. This is led by SOS social workers at 101 S. Huron St, Ypsilanti MI, 48197. Please bring a photocopy of your ID, either a driver’s license or passport. Prior to the training, students will fill out paperwork that will be provided by Deb. Site leader: Deb Faculty supervisor: Deb 734-649-3118
Telling It SOS/Kids Where: Riverside Arts Center, 76 N. Huron, Ypsilanti 48197 When: Thursdays 3:30-7pm starting with the training on September 24th. What: Weekly sessions with 7-9 year old children receiving services from SOS Community Services. Transportation: Carpool or local bus service Mandatory Training: either on Tuesday, September 22nd OR on Thursday, September 24th 3- 5:30pm. This is led by SOS social workers at 101 S. Huron St, Ypsilanti MI, 48197. Please bring a photocopy of your ID, either a driver’s license or passport. Prior to the training, students will fill out paperwork that will be provided by Deb. Site leader: Renee Gross 303-386-5446 Faculty supervisor: Deb 734-649-3118
Telling It YCMS (Ypsilanti Community Middle School) Where: 235, Spencer Rd, Ypsilanti 48198 When: Thursdays, 2:30-6pm starting with a training session held at the school on Thursday, September, 24th What: Weekly after school sessions with 8th graders. Transportation: Carpool Site leader and faculty supervisor: Deb 734-649-3118
HUMANIZE THE NUMBERS One or two-semester internship with photographer Mark Strandquist
“Humanize the Numbers is an ongoing project that utilizes collaborative art practices, public installations, and cross-disciplinary collaborations to connect incarcerated men and women in Michigan state prisons with hundreds of students, artists, researchers, and activists in and around Ann Arbor.
Mark Strandquist, an award winning artist, educator and organizer will be working with a diverse array of partners to create entry points into the project for hundreds of students, faculty,
15 community organizations, family members of incarcerated individuals, former prisoners, and policy makers.”
The Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) is bringing Mark to Michigan and he will be collaborating with PCAP as well as with other courses on photography, incarceration and social justice. Check out Mark’s websites at: www.performingstatistics.org www.peoplespaperco-op.com www.nomovement.com
“In Winter 2016, we will organize a campus wide constellation of exhibitions that highlight both our project partners and the projects and programming they helped produce. Combining collaborative art, research, and activism, the project will utilize the exhibitions as a stage to bring diverse community members together to engage with the sources, impacts, and alternatives to mass incarceration. Mirroring the project’s ethos, the community-wide exhibition won’t seek to impose information, rather, but instead help foster a stage for local knowledge to emerge, complicate, and activate the project’s artistic and civic potential.”
“Humanize the Numbers … won’t impose information upon a community, rather, create avenues and a stage for local knowledge to emerge, complicate and activate the project’s artistic and civic potential.”
Humanize the Numbers Internship role: Students would be collaborating with photographer, Mark Strandquist, on a one to two-semester project. Interns would be developing the project under Mark’s tutelage and in collaboration with the teens and the teams at the Telling It sites. If students continue the project into the winter semester, students it would count as an Independent Study. Mark will be in Michigan only a few times over the fall and the winter semesters so most of the collaboration with him will be achieved through social media and on-line. The specific focus of the project will be determined by the students and Mark and will be displayed as part of the larger Humanize The Numbers exhibit in April of 2016. Faculty supervisor: Deb 734-649-3118
ADDITIONAL INTERNSHIP OPTIONS
Please note that should there be an opportunity for a student to be involved in an independent internship not included in this list, probably more relevant to MSW students, let us know and we can consider that option. The main criteria are that there should be a creative arts component and a social justice context.
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